February 2015
Issue 14
Supporting the Educational Community
e at lin ch on ed ew at /uk Vi m .co uu iss
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Lessons From
The Rising
Dragon
Learning and Teaching Mandarin Chinese p12
p22 Numeracy Literacy and‌
Oracy
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14 Relighting the fire of learning
p16 Review of BETT 2015 20
Why we need a College of Teaching
26
Teaching in a British School in China
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Issue 14: February 2015
Subscribe by email for free at bit.ly/ukedmagsub Subscribe to the print edition at ukedchat.com/magazine 4 Early Intervention is the Key to Success
Paul Stockley discusses the need to intervene to improve the educational chances of children at the earliest possible time.
5 In Brief
Three short articles Holly Fairbrother, Mandi Miles and Phil Herd on writing, positivity and further study for teachers.
6 Lessons from the Dragon
Marin Burrett shares his insight into the rapidly developing Chinese education system and what it can teach us in the rest of the world.
9 Welcoming the Year of the Goat
A collection of ideas and resources to bring China into your classroom for Chinese New Year.
10 Should You Use Technology in the Classroom
Mark Anderson discusses the case for using or not using technology. Has the ICT Evangelist lost his faith?
12 Learning and Teaching Mandarin Chinese
Simone Haughey explains how she came to teach Mandarin as only a beginner herself and what the impact has been on her school.
14 Relighting the fire of learning
Benedick Ashmore-Short tells the story of the remarkable journey he and is school has been on to improve the education the pupils.
16 The Best of BETT 2015
Our look back on the highlights of this year’s BETT show and a look at the companies, products and events that caught our eye.
19 Book Shelf -Leadership Dialogues: Conversations & activities for leadership teams -How to Teach Literacy - Commas, colons, connectives & conjunctions
20 Time for the Professional Body Teachers Deserve
David Weston discusses why teachers need a College of Teaching to represent the interests and need of the profession.
21 Why we need a College of Teaching
James Abela looks at the idea of College of Teaching as from some with experience of a professional association in his first career before teaching and what this could mean for teachers and education.
22 Numeracy, Literacy and… Oracy
Holly Page explores the importance of oracy and why our young people need to develop their oral language skills.
24 Global Linking - Manchester to Nanjing
Angela Goodman shares her experience of setting up an international partnership with a Chinese school and its benefits to both schools.
26 Teaching in a British School in China
Elizabeth Westwood shares her insight into teaching at a British School in Shanghai and what the pupils think about their school and learning.
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From the Editor Education is a global endeavour. The focus of policy makers has increasingly shifted towards looking at international league tables of educational performance and attempting to import ideas from educational ‘super powers’. China is a super power in a myriad of ways and its education system has developed at a dizzying rate. With huge resources and equally huge challenges, China has also been watching and learning from other education systems from around the world and the reality of modern education in China may surprise you. In this issue we take look at education in China and the lessons we can take from it in the UK. We also explore ways to bring a little Chinese culture into your classroom for Chinese New Year. 恭喜发财 and have a wonderful year of the goat! Martin Burrett - Editor @ICTmagic @UKEdMag editor@ukedchat.com
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Follow @UKED_Directory for commercial updates Contributors Paul Stockley @bradwaystockley Holly Fairbrother @MrsHollyEnglish Mandi Miles @mandmiles Phil Herd @montgenev Mark Anderson @ICTEvangelist Simone Haughey @simonehaughey Benedick Ashmore-Short @Benedick1 David Weston @informed_edu James Abela @ESLweb Holly Page @21trustedu Angela Goodman @goodman_ang Ian Daniels @Mr_Daniels_SFP Hayley Simpkin @pipkinzoo Elizabeth Westwood The publishers accepts no responsibility for any claims made in any advertisement appearing in this publication. Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy, the publishers accept no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions. Many images have been source under a Commercial Creative Commons License. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 Cover Photo Credit: Image by Martin Burrett
Early Intervention is the Key to Success By Paul Stockley
I’ve been a teacher for 25 years and a Headteacher for 12. In all that time there hasn’t been enough political recognition or bravery which is required to provide a long term improvement in the lives of our most deprived children. What it was like as a social worker in the 1980’s Many years ago in the early 1980’s, before training to be a teacher, I worked as a social worker. I helped to run an outreach centre for young families, where they could socialise and receive any support they needed. I also worked in the attached children’s home for young people who had just been released from Young Offenders institutions or had been evicted from their homes by their families. It was a tough call for a young man who had not seen very much of the real world at that time and I grew up quickly during the year that I worked there. Part of my job was to visit families to offer support and I saw and experienced many things which challenged my then limited view about how most people lived. I saw for myself households with no books or toys, where adult communication with children barely occurred and where children were mainly left to themselves. One house in particular really shocked me and I can still see it in my mind’s eye today. Structurally it was in good condition and it looked well maintained from the outside. However on entering it was like walking into a desert. The spacious rooms were empty of all but a few pieces of furniture and the floor was filthy. On the floor, on his own, sat a two year old boy in just a nappy with not a toy in sight and he was watching the biggest television I had ever seen. The television looked very new, and was in such stark contrast to the rest of the child’s barren, empty environment, that the image was seared into my memory. It was only a snapshot, perhaps unrepresentative, but my world view changed a little that day. I often wonder what that child is doing now. He would be in his thirties today. Many children still start school without basic skills It is a sad fact that, as teachers, we often come across children who have had very limited experiences of the world
when they start school. Schools admit children who are not potty trained, are unable to socialise appropriately and who don’t get enough sleep due to chaotic home circumstances. Many have never been read a story or have never even handled a book. The aim is to try and make up the shortfall for these deprived pupils by providing a rich curriculum full of stimulating activities and new experiences. This is of course a very important part of trying to improve the life chances for these pupils but the research indicates that, already, at the age of 4, it will be much more difficult to make up for these missed experiences. Children will learn and progress more easily if they already have an efficient network of ‘pathways’ in their brains when they start school. Those who start with a disadvantage may be burdened with it all through school and into their adult lives. The development of neurons in the brain Here I need to add a little science to make my point. As many people know, brain development, or learning, is actually, physically, the process of creating, strengthening, and discarding connections among neurons or nerve cells in the brain. These connections are called synapses and they organise the brain by forming pathways that connect the parts of the brain, governing everything we do. The development of synapses occurs at an astounding rate during children’s early years, in response to the young child’s experiences. At its peak, the brain of a healthy toddler may create 2 million synapses per second! An under stimulated brain will have a less developed network of connections which will make it more difficult for the owner of that brain to progress through each developmental stage. Effectively stimulation provides the foundation for learning. By not focussing sufficiently on the many children who are deprived of stimulation in their early years is storing up all sorts of problems for the future and currently we have a national system of education which is biased towards the later years of a person’s school life. It is designed to resolve the problems later rather than to prevent them happening in the first place. The government’s own 2011 report recommended early intervention In Graham Allen’s 2011 report to the government on early intervention (bit.ly/uked15feb01) he recommends that the period of a child’s life from 0-5, including pregnancy, should be given at least as much status as Primary educational phase and the Secondary educational phase. Just a brief look at the research seems to support this view since, if we get it wrong from the beginning, we will always be playing catch up.
Some 4 year old children looking cheerful during their first week in school 04 UKED Magazine
So many of the problems faced by schools, social services and indeed police forces, are exacerbated because they are trying to intervene at a late stage when much damage has already been done. There are four year old pupils starting their school life who are barely taken out of the immediate area in which they live; who have never seen a real sheep or a cow and who are left for long periods of time with only a television, computer or tablet to entertain them. These children, unsurprisingly, find it difficult to communicate; they’ve barely had to before, and they find social situations such as sharing or playing with others, stressful and confusing.
The impact of early intervention and what happens if you cut services for preschool children Research shows that a child’s development score at just 22 months can serve as an accurate predictor of educational outcomes at 26 years. In other words, getting it right early is enormously important if children are to make the progress that we all want for them in life. This may seem obvious, but it is not currently reflected in national policy, which has resulted in the forced closure of services designed to support very young children and their families. The challenge for the future Those who lead in Councils, and in schools, are well aware of the need to invest in early intervention. Councils can’t do much about national political decisions on funding, but schools and other agencies can do something about raising awareness of the school readiness problem and taking action to improve the situation. There needs to be a greater linking of services at a local level, including schools, greater communication between schools and preschools. The preschool phase of education, with huge numbers of privately run nurseries, needs to be viewed as being just as important as the later phases. Otherwise we will always be trying to repair the damage, rather than preventing it happening in the first place.
Paul Stockley is a Primary Headteacher at Bradway Primary School in Sheffield where he is also Chair if the Primary Leaders Partnership. Find Paul on Twitter at @bradwaystockley.
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Image credit: Background image by Martin Burrett. Other images provided by Paul Stockley
Positivity Breeds Positivity
Social constructivist learning theories suggest today’s educators should create inquiry-based units asking learners to work together to think about big questions. Rather than the ubiquitous class novel study, I planned a unit asking my Year 7s to think about the future of fiction and whether technology can help us to tell a story.
Have you woken up in a bad mood, convinced that your day will be terrible and that nothing can improve it to find that, despite your insistence on misery, you end up smiling when you really don’t want to? I think we all have. This is because positivity is contagious. Consider this in every class you teach. Smile, laugh, encourage and be in a good mood (yes I am aware that on occasion you may have to fake it a little).
I am currently studying an MEd in Technology and this, combined with my love of books, is an area of great interest to me. As a twenty first century educator, I am constantly considering where reading and writing might be going for learners growing up in a digital age. I wonder if e-readers may re-engage learners who read more online but less and less in print. My unit was co-constructed with my Year 7s and covered the essential elements of stories, involved reading and discussing lots of stories, then ultimately deciding on a story to tell and a technology tool to tell it with. The class learned how to storyboard, draft, script, code, write, animate, create electrical circuits, film, create and tell stories using tools such as iMotion, Inklewriter, iBooks Author, iMovie, MinecraftEdu, Makey Makey and Scratch. Finally, they showcased their stories and wrote reflections on the skills they had developed, what they think they learned, what they’d like to improve upon, and what they were proud of, exploring whether or not they think technology can help us tell a story and where the future of fiction lies. @MrsHollyEnglish - Global Youth Debates Project Manager, English Teacher, Qatar
In Brief
The Future of Fiction?
Students respond, as all humans do, to their surroundings. If you come into a classroom with the weight of the world on your shoulders then EVERY student in there will pick up on that. You will soon bring them down. Go in happy and smiling, good moods are as contagious in the classroom as they are everywhere else. Smile and the class smiles with you! @mandmiles - GCSE Lecturer, Hampshire
Further Study “I’ve too much time on my hands,” said no teacher ever. Whilst this may be true, finding the time to undertake further learning of your own can have powerful effects on your role in your school. Whether it be pedagogical changes that impact on the children or improving your skills in helping colleagues the rewards are many. After 11 years of teaching I was starting to get in a rut with my career. However, undertaking an MA in education and the proper professional development that brings, refreshed parts of my teaching that other CPD couldn’t reach. @montgenev - Teacher & maths coordinator, Nottingham ukedchat.com/magazine
31 ukedchat.com/magazine 05
Lessons from the
Rising Dragon By Martin Burrett
China holds a mystique for many people in the western world. A country where the abundance of superlatives is simply breath-taking. The cityscapes of China’s vast metropolises shift and grow upwards and outwards on a daily basis, backed by economic growth which is almost tangible on the streets. But there has been a quiet revolution happening in the background to China’s remarkable rise which has the potential to secure China’s place as a superpower long into the future - Education.
has inviting hundreds of Chinese maths teachers into English schools to share their expertise. As in the UK, China’s policy makers have been studying and importing elements of other international education systems into their own and have been rolling out the latest educational research, such as the meta-study of John Hattie, into classrooms across the nation. Chinese leaders have recognised that the academic rigour, which has been the hallmark of Chinese schools for decades, by itself is not sufficient, but needs to be developed in tandem with creatively, independent thinking and the development of rounded individuals who can function well in society. They are at the beginning of this journey and China has many hurdles to overcome. There are currently government posters all over China promoting the ‘Chinese dream’. A huge, aging population, environmental degradation and a huge gulf between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ could derail that dream.
The popular perception of Chinese education in the west is of silent classrooms of kids in rows listening to the teacher and copying out notes in a textbook. While this has been true in the past, as it was in the UK, China has been making reforms to its education system in earnest since 1987, with major changes happening in just the last 3 years. In 2017 China is making huge changes to its curriculum and in the way in which exams and university places are assigned, in a move which will In January 2015, UKED Magazine was given unfettered brings it much closer to the system we recognise in the access to five schools in three cities along China’s eastern UK. coast to see the changes for ourselves. We travelled to The culture of revering knowledge and education the city of Wuxi in Jiangsu Province, and then to Fuzhou is ancient and deep rooted in China. The ethos of and Xiamen in Fujian province and visited one primary Confucius is still felt by most Chinese people and school and four high schools. completely disaffected students are rare. In contrast to many western countries, students in China think it is cool to be clever and are often very self motivated in their learning. The price for failing to gain a good education in China, with competition from 1.4 billion other people and a limited warfare state as a safely net is simply too high.
Each of the schools visited was interested in forming ties with schools from around the world. If you are interested in working with any of the schools, please contact us at editor@ukedchat.com. You can view hundreds more photos of our educational tour of China on our Flickr stream at bit.ly/uked15feb02.
Read our previous UKED Magazine article for Shanghai scored very well in the latest PISA background information about the Chinese education international educational tests in native language system at bit.ly/uked15feb03. studies, maths and science. So impressive that England
Shanghai 上海 Jiangsu Province Wuxi 无锡
CHINA 中国
Zoomed Section
Fujian Province Xiamen 厦门
06 UKED Magazine
Fuzhou 福州
Wuxi Experimental Primary School I first visited this school in 2008. At least a version of this school - in the intervening year the school had more than doubled in size and building continues to this day with the addition of a multi-million pound sports complex and indoor swimming pool. The school has over four thousand pupils from Grade 1-6 (6-12 years old). In Chinese primary schools the students are taught by many teachers who teach a single subject, as we do in secondary schools in the UK. The school is said to be the best in the area and boosts some amazing facilities, including several lecture theatres, a huge science museum, a robotics workshop, numerous science labs and a whole three storey building dedicated to art and music.
I spoke to the school headteacher about his perception of Chinese education. He told me that exams are important, but now China must focus on development a rounded individual and improve social skills. He felt that teachers were adapting to this way of teaching, but more work needs to be done. He also told me that moral education was very important to build stronger social cohesion for the nation in the future. He continued, “Education in Chinese in on the right path to make our education system one of the best in the world.�
Extra curricular activities are seen as very important at the school to build confidence and to instil a love of learning. There are a range of club the children can attend, including Chinese calligraphy, music groups where students learn to play both traditional Chinese instruments and western instruments, nature clubs and reading clubs hosted by the school library. While watching lessons around the school I noticed a marked change in the levels of interaction between teachers and pupils and pair work has become increasing common in only a few years.
Fuzhou No. 19 Middle School In China, most schools are given a number which shows their education rank, with the no. 1 school taking the top students in the area. As it is number 19, this hows that school is considered a middle-ranking school. It is also one of the smallest middle schools right in the centre of city, with only a few hundred students. Despite its size, the school had many facilities, including an impressive array of education technology in every class, which is now the norm in middle schools, a huge sports hall, a pupil well-being building with a school counsellor. A school counsellor is a relatively recent development in China, but now most middle schools have an area where students can go to talk and get advice about how to management their workload and any problems they may be having at school or at home.
ukedchat.com/magazine 07
Fuzhou No.3 Middle School This is a huge school which is currently undergoing a vast building project to erect a towering new teaching block with state of the art facilities. This school is considered one of the best in the entire province and the students are some of the most talented in the area. In classes across the school, heads were down and the students were clearly working hard and driven to do well. I spoke with the vice principal, Mr Wei, who explained that the school offers students hoping to study aboard special classes which are taught through English. The school has a number of foreign teachers from many different Englishspeaking countries. We discussed the university entrance exam and how it is changing in 2017 to reduce the stress on pupils. Right now every tenths of a percentage point could mean the difference of going to a good or going to a great university. In the future, this will be grouped, so students who are comfortably in that desired range can have a greater confidence of getting into their chosen university. These days around 85% of school leavers go on to university, but the quality and prestige of universities varies greatly. Fuzhou Experimental Primary School The ‘experimental’ in its name shows that the school is under the direct control of the local educational department and it is considered the best primary school in Fuzhou city. The school is a blend of new building and facilities with ancient Chinese culture, including an ancient tree towering over the playground and a beautiful ancient tea house being used to welcome guests to the school.
Xiamen No. 1 Middle School - Haicang branch Despite the name, this school is more than 40 minutes drive away from Xiamen city and it is a rural branch school. There is a educational divide between schools in the cities and the countryside. In China, successful city schools often are paired with rural schools to offer extra support, training and an exchange of teachers. This is one of the success stories, as this branch school is now pioneering teaching techniques which are being adopted more widely. Because the performance of the students was poor many years ago, the school has used group work and discussion to improve thinking skills through collaboration. Many lessons follows a similar pattern of an introduction, followed by reflection, discussion and note making in groups for 10-20 minutes and the lesson concludes with a student volunteering to feedback to the rest of the class. Unlike most schools in China with generally seat students in rows, the students in Haicang sit in clusters to help them collaborate and peer teach. The strategies seems to have worked. The schools exam
08 UKED Magazine
At the end of the lesson the bell rang and the students came streaming out onto the playground. The boys played basketball and many of the girls played table tennis or volleyball, with one groups rushing off to practise a dance routine for a up coming show. It was good to see the students unwinding after the intense concentration of their studies. The school has a special classroom to practise emergency training for pupils, including first aid and working phones to practise making calls to the emergency services. Over a cup of jasmine tea I spoke with the school leadership team. I asked them what skills the children start their schooling with. “Just the basics, as it is more difficult to unteach misconceptions.” I asked about class sizes in China, which are often between 35-50 pupils in size, and how teachers deliver personalised learning. The head teacher told me that it was a challenge, but it begins by truly knowing the children and their needs. The head teacher is starting a project with China Telecom, the biggest telecom provider in China, to deliver video lessons, both recorded and hopefully live in the future, to schools with less resources and less-experienced teachers to provide personal learning to thousands of students through ‘on demand’ learning opportunities (and would welcome contributors from overseas if you would like to get in touch via UKED Magazine). This was a school with big ideas, not only for their own children, but for the nation.
results, as well as student happiness and attitude to learning, have all increased dramatically in the 2 years that the school has been using this approach. As a result, the school is receiving lots of attention from other schools and policy makers looking to improve the education of their own students.
It is clear that China, like every other country, is seeking to improve it’s education system by looking inwards in detail at what in happening of the ground and sharing best practice, and looking outwards to other countries and emulating techniques which might improve the way things are done. The government, free from the constrains of electioneering, can be completely pragmatic and change is happening quickly at every level of education. But what I think it the biggest lesson to learn from China isn’t about policy or even educational techniques - it’s cultural. Education and knowledge are valued by absolutely everyone in China, and it is seen as a duty to your country, your family and your yourself to do your very best in school and students have the foresight to see the long-term benefits of education and work accordingly. While the UK importing Chinese maths teaching will benefit those who are already engaged in their learning, these will only be marginal gains unless the cultural ethos of self-driven learning is also in place. The rapid rise of China’s educational prowess is in no small part due to the record investment that the government is putting into schools, with building project funding at individual schools being in the hundreds of millions in some cases. The world is now a global market and every student on Earth is in competition for their perfect future. With the reassuring notion that China is simply an exam factory beginning to fade, how will the western world compete? Perhaps now is the time to take some lessons from the rising dragon.
Classroom Resources and Ideas for
Chinese New Year Mandarin children’s songs to stream from the web for free or you can buy a CD alittlemandarin.com/music
Find out how to read and write your pupils’ names in Chinese. Name not there? You can request for it to be added to the list. ukedchat.com/PLA00002 Write a bilingual letter in both English and Chinese to a pen pal in China with this template. Just copy and paste the sections you want. ukedchat.com/PLA00003
Find many more Chinese resources at ukedchat.com/ictmagic A YouTube video of the story of Nian - a mythical creature which Chinese scare away each year with firecrackers. bit.ly/uked15feb04
and ukedchat.com/resources ukedchat.com/magazine 09
You Shouldn’t Use Technology
You Should Use Technology
in the Classroom
By @ICTpessimist
The thing is, technology is just a distraction. There’s absolutely no chance that it will do anything other than distract students from what is required. Learning is what is most important in the classroom. Shiny posh toys such as iPads and the Nexus 9 do nothing more than distract students from the main aim of learning. As professionals we know that there are many key aspects to what made a great lesson and learning experience for young people and it shouldn’t involve distractions like these.
By @ICTEvangelist
Technology can enhance learning, raise engagement levels, and focus student’s attention in new ways, to support the task at hand. It can help them to express themselves and collaborate together in unrivalled ways. Devices like iPad and other tablets enable teachers and students to take their learning out of the classroom and to learn at any time and in any place. As professionals we know that there are many key aspects to what makes for a great lesson and learning experience and technology can have a huge impact.
Let’s look at this in more detail. I would hope that we can agree that one of the most popular pedagogies for teaching and learning is Bloom’s taxonomy. In his taxonomy, Benjamin Bloom said that there were five distinct cognitive activities: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Evaluation and Synthesis. The revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy expands this a little: Remember: Technology surely can’t help us here. Technology doesn’t provide any opportunity to help with remembering.
Remember: Using flip-card apps such as Quizlet and Quiz Studio can help students remember and re-enforces learning.
Understand: Again, how can technology help teachers help students to understand a topic? As teacher it is my job to impart knowledge and make sure that students understand what is being taught. Technology cannot help anyone to truly understand.
Understand: The Internet, with access to videos on the Khan Academy and YouTube, and using apps such as Socrative, PingPong, Google Forms, creates opportunities to test students’ knowledge on whether they understand things.
Apply: In applying knowledge and skills, technology falls flat on its shiny metal derrière. Surely students can’t apply their understanding using technology? They would simply plagiarise some websites and offer it as their own work without even reading it. There’s simply no opportunity to use technology to enhance learning there at all.
Apply: There are a vast range of ways which technology is capable of enhancing the application of knowledge and skills. Using word processors and photos are just two examples. Students can re-interpret and re-purpose information researched using the Web and they could curate information they find online to a Pinterest/Educlipper board.
Analyse: Naturally, technology has no place in helping students with analysis. Technology has no role to play in making information clearer and simply complicates the picture.
Analyse: Creative tools like infographics creators, such as Piktochart, can be used to compare different information gathered via research or use of Google Sheets or Excel to analyse collated data. Technology is offering innovative ways to give peer feedback, such as through blogging.
Evaluate: Asking students to evaluate things that they are working on simply cannot happen using technology. Technology is a barrier to true communication for students, to feed back to their peers, to help evaluate their work. Putting information out on a blog is only encouraging negative comments which doesn’t help anyone. Online polls and surveys to gather information can’t be used to evaluate accurate results, as just anyone can take part.
Evaluate: There are a range of tools which allow students to collaborate in the evaluation of a fellow student’s work, not least the humble interactive whiteboard. You might like to try Voicethread or the commenting and suggestion features in Google Docs too. Students and teachers can use blogs and respond to collective evaluation to refine and improve their work. Polls and surveys can help to gather information to helps students evaluate and canvas opinion too.
10 UKED Magazine
Create: This is obviously an area where using traditional methods will bring far more to the learning in the classroom. Technology simply has nothing to offer in the classroom to support learning. Even if your students did manage to create something interesting on MS Paint or tap out a digital tune on the keyboard - it’s on the computer and it won’t be seen or heard by anyone else. It isn’t a creative endeavour unless it can be displayed and appreciated by others.
Create: Tech shouldn’t simply replace traditional methods, but it can enhance existing methods of creativity, as well as offer a huge range of creative opportunities - which would be very difficult or impossible to accomplish without it. Create podcasts or videos using apps like Audioboom, Explain Everything, Adobe Voice, Vidra, iMovie or Spreaker DJ to give an audience to work, demonstrate learning, evaluate or analyse work and help students remember their learning.
So there you have it. I hope I’ve made my case clear. There is simply no place for technology in the classroom to enhance learning. If you can think of any ways for technology to support other aspects of great teaching such as strong questioning, formative and summative assessment, explaining and differentiation I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I have only just scratched the surface of the myriad of possibilities that technology can bring to the classroom. Naturally, pedagogy and learning guide the use of technology, but mobile devices and collaborative digital tools mean that technology can enhance most learning opportunities in the classroom and beyond. What are your thoughts?
The @ICTpessimist is a literary construct and alter ego of the @ICTevangelist Mark Anderson. Image credit: Background image by Martin Burrett. Other images provided by Mark Anderson
Mark Anderson @ICTevangelist is a former AHT, education consultant with a passion for creativity, learning and innovation in the classroom. Mark is an award-winning blogger, author of best-selling ‘Perfect ICT Every Lesson’, Independent Thinking Associate and finalist in this years UK Blog Awards. Mark blogs at ictevangelist.com / educationevangelist.com.
The best websites from
Find thousands of other educational sites at
ukedchat.com/ictmagic
chinese-skill.com
bit.ly/uked15feb05
bit.ly/uked15feb06
billnye.com/blog
aworldlymind.com
crumbles.co
Superb game app for anyone looking to learn Mandarin Chinese.
Science site of activities, experiments, video demos & downloads
An online Spirograph - great for maths lessons or pop culture in art.
App aims to make you worldly by teaching you facts about countries.
Augmented reality app which allows you to explore human anatomy.
Type & this site will collect pop-culture videos & the words together.
twinery.org
Create interactive non-linear stories where readers decide the direction of the plot.
codekingdoms.com
Learn coding, travel to planets, complete missions with this great game. ukedchat.com/magazine 11
Learning and Teaching
Mandarin Chinese
I had been teaching for two years with a PGCE Primary MFL qualification when during an interview, I was asked if I would be interested in learning Chinese in order to teach it. My reply, that I had an interest in Cantonese film and a passion for languages, seemed to have worked, as I have now worked at Robin Hood Primary Academy for just over 8 years. My initial role was Class Teacher and teaching French and I started a languages blog robinhoodpmfl.wordpress. com to showcase the children’s work, sharing websites and resources I had used in lessons in order to the children to revise at home. I then started Mandarin Chinese lessons at evening classes at the Brasshouse Language Centre, making sure I was a couple of weeks ahead of the children,so I could teach them what I had learnt in my lessons. Initially, it was a real labour of love as I found it nearly impossible to find resources or teachers to share ideas with. All the websites were in Chinese. I could research for resource material for French, but reading Chinese websites was another matter. Twitter was a great way to find other language teachers who taught Chinese, sharing their resources which were transferable. I participated on the yahoo Primary Languages Forum, where people shared their resources, but at that time there weren’t many Chinese teachers. My Mandarin slowly improved over the months, but I still had a long way to go. I wrote my own planning, taking any cultural references mentioned in my evening classes and researching them in order to teach them to the children. We even had TeachersTV come and film a lesson. After a maternity leave break, I returned to work for a new headteacher, Richard Hunter. Richard asked me if I would go to China with him to our link school, Beijing No. 2 Experimental Primary School and I agreed. It was enlightening to have a tour of an education system quite different from ours and to meet some of the 2,700 students who were friendly and excited.
12 UKED Magazine
By Simone Haughey
During the first morning of our visit, there was a flag raising ceremony. As we waited in the cold December morning, I hadn’t even noticed half the school had filed into the playground in complete silence. We had been informed that we were to give a speech to the 2000 students present, I thought my knees would give way! As I spoke in English a Grade 6 child simultaneously translated it for the students. The sights we saw were phenomenal, I ran out of superlatives. Our link school’s hospitality was so welcoming. We were to be chauffeur driven onto Tiananmen Square into the back entrance of Chairman Mao’s mausoleum, a private tour of priceless artefacts which different provinces had sent to the mausoleum on the news of his death, his name in Rubies or gold silk thread tapestry, and we got to jump the queue to file past the chairman himself. It was a trip of a lifetime, and finally I understood the language so much more. For example, the shape of the characters were like the slant on the roofs of traditional buildings. The Mandarin Chinese language work had gained us Confucius Classroom status, winning a grant and a teacher from China each year. I have set up a Chinese Choir, and we have performed in the Chinese Quarter in the centre of Birmingham for the Chinese New Year celebrations last year, where the children were each paid £1 in red envelopes, then again for the Mid Autumn festival. We have made a music video; bit.ly/uked15feb07 We have just performed, the Disney film Frozen, ‘Let it go’, Suí tā ba 随它吧 for our Christmas performance, I wanted to children to have a full experience, so we made a set of the ice castle, a dance instructor, they designed their own t-shirts, stage make up, props and lights. This year, we will performing again in Birmingham’s Chinese Quarter. bit.ly/uked15feb08
I like to use very practical and hands on ideas in my lessons to engage the children. For example, using inks and brushes, games, and songs, sometimes even a ukulele. Mandarin Chinese engages and interests all the students. Boys in particular enjoy the culture of Kung Fu, dragons and the logic of the language and learning to write the characters. If you are thinking of learning and teaching Chinese, I highly recommend it. Through this I have firmly put the language knowledge into my own long term memory, the power of this has meant that I often use peer teaching within lessons and across the school. For example our Year 3 students planned, wrote and delivered Mandarin lessons in foundation and key stage 1. This experience has been life-changing. It has opened doors to experiences that I will never forget. I am constantly learning new words and cultural insights and I have created my own Mandarin Chinese website; mrsmandarin.co.uk. It’s in the early stages, but it will be an online support resource for teaching and learning Mandarin Chinese, using the pool of resources I have gathered over the past few years. Here are some websites that I have found to be useful: • primaryresources.co.uk/mfl/mfl_mandarin.htm • thechinesestaffroom.com • ciforschools.wordpress.com • chinese4kids.net • memrise.com • TM Reading - bit.ly/uked15feb09
The children learn Chinese reading and writing, as well as speaking and listening skills.
Simone Haughey @simonehaughey is a MFL Consultant, Primary Languages Teacher and Confucius Classroom Manager at Robin Hood Primary Academy. Simone is a lover of languages as a way to make friends and try new cuisine! She is a self-professed teachmeet addict and likes to keep up her CPD with #mfltwitterati on Twitter and Primary Languages on facebook. These are great ways of sharing and being inspired.
Image credit: Background image by Martin Burrett. Other images provided by Simone Haughey
ukedchat.com/magazine 13
Relighting the fire of learning
Transformation of a School By Benedick Ashmore-Short
What would I want from an article about transformation out of special measures? Not anecdotes, not selfcongratulation, but I would want to feel inspired that doing the right thing as an educationalist works! So it is with this mindset that I write this piece. The right thing being that, as leaders in school, we have a flame to reignite, protect and fan; that is the flame of learning.
receive the very highest quality of teaching and learning. They are there to tend the fire and turn it into a furnace, they have to be highly skilled, with a passion for adult and child learning. All adults must be on a learning journey, the culture created from the top must be one of learning and I will not use up valuable words writing about where this must be shared with pupils. Hamford was as a school, but it was in a deserved category and had been for a number of years. The flame of learning Staff need to be self-reflective and own their learning. had been smothered and was a mere glow. The most Too often staff development is something that happens important area to focus time, resources and energy was to teachers. It is not based on need and is generic with in the pursuit of rekindling the love of learning for all. I staff waiting for the next buzz word to appear. We have will now endeavour to share some of the innovations that created a learning blog for all staff that is a one-stop shop have managed to spark our transformation to where we for all development around teaching and learning. A blog at hamfordteachingandlearningblog.wordpress.com that are today. staff can dip into, where they will be challenged, but with Firstly, in education our time is precious, very precious, ideas that fuel the learning fire. Now staff feel empowered especially if energy levels in the classroom are to be kept that development is theirs, and that they are safe to try high. Too often time is spent in meetings discussing things new ideas. A school or a classroom is a research centre that have no direct impact on teaching and learning. where we can constantly tweak and improve what we do, Staff meetings were removed and replaced with our so that learning is maximized for children in our context. ‘Communities of Practice’, where we looked at current research, lesson study and pedagogy. Our time together With a strong fire, what you also need is a firewall and as teachers was focused and empowered teachers to take that must be the Headteacher. So many things try to risks without fear of judgement. These sessions were extinguish the fire, whether it is Ofsted, the government replicated in miniature during morning assembly for all or just plain old logistics. My job as a firewall, is to protect my staff from these dampeners, to allow everyone to staff so everyone had the same input. focus on what children need, namely high quality learning Furthermore, I employed a lead practitioner for teaching opportunities facilitated by happy, energised, passionate and learning. It may sound obvious, but I often see schools adults, who have the learning flame burning brightly in where the lead for teaching and learning has a number them. of roles. It is the most important job in the school. The individual needs time and resources to ensure all children Benedick Ashmore-Short @Benedick1 was the winner of the 2014 Pearson ‘Primary Headteacher of the Year’. He is currently Principal of Hamford Primary Academy where his passion and dedication for improving teaching and learning in schools has been evident by the substantial improvements made at Hamford.
Image credit: flickr.com/photos/nita-w/8344674845 by Nita used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License. flickr.com/photos/magnera/3984413077 by L.C. Nøttaasen used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License. 14 UKED Magazine
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Best of
2015
BETT 2015 once again proved to be very popular, with hundreds of companies sharing their new and innovative products aimed at the educational sector. Over 35,000 people are reported to have attended the show this year, and here are some of the highlights which we spotted: 2. DK Find Out @dkbooks – We are all familiar with the knowledge and capacity of the DK Books, offering a wealth of information covering many school curriculum topics. Now, the publisher has digitised their extensive library online which is easily accessible on all devices, including desktop, tablet and mobile. This new digital offering enhances the learning experience with sound, video animation and quizzes throughout.
The show was opened by England’s Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan, arguing that, "Innovative technologies must be at the heart of education change, but this vision is not shared by all schools", and that "The pace of change that it is difficult for teachers to adapt quickly". She also highlighted research showing that more than half of teenagers know more about computing and computers than their teachers. The full speech is available at bit.ly/ BETT2015Morgan.
1. Microsoft and Minecraft @microsofteduk – With the 2014 purchase of Minecraft by Microsoft, there was clearly quite a large presence from the tech giant, showing the creative opportunities which Minecraft offers. On their stand, Microsoft showcased the program, with live demonstrations of how Minecraft can be crafted into different curriculum areas. Many envied the TNT boxes and blocks on display within the area! 16 UKED Magazine
3. Class Charts @Classcharts - We were impressed with the behaviour and seating program developed by Class Charts (classcharts.com) which develops seating plans to help teachers ensure that pupils are sat where they are not distracted by peers by rating how they cope sat among different people. This is stored on the platform, helping inform colleagues determine the best places to seat pupils. As the developers pointed out to us, it’s not all about negatives, but also note the positive behaviours of pupils, and how well they work with different peers. 4. Sphero @SpheroEdu – We spotted quite a few robots at BETT, and the first to be featured in this section is Sphero, which uses the SPRK program to control the spherical machine. At first glance, Sphero may just seem like a quirky gadget, but when used with the (free) “Sphero Macrolab” app available for Android or iOS. Supported by some great STEM activities (available at their website at bit.ly/BETTSphero) the orb can support learning about: Time, distance and speed; 2d geometry; mean, median and mode; percentages, and so on.
5. Arckit @Arckitmodel – We loved the potential that Arckit is able to offer. The model making system allows pupils to physically explore designs and bring their own architectural projects. The system uses interconnecting components that are completely modular and based on modern panelled building techniques, making it possible to create a diverse range of scaled structures that can be quickly assembled and endlessly modified. Visit their website at arckit.com
6. VSWare @VSwareUK – Some of the practicalities of actually running a school are being challenged by some companies who are using the free-market to offer products and savings that are appealing to many. One such company is VSWare who are offering a user-friendly school administration/ Management Information System, which is easily accessible to teachers and administrators alike. Key information procedures are easily accessible and easy to maintain, which is key for keeping relevant information up-to-date. Explore at vsware.co.uk. 7. The highlight of the show, for many (judging by the crowds he drew) was the keynote speech from Sir Ken Robinson. During the speech, the well-respected and renowned educator compared the international education performance tables by PISA like the Eurovision song contest – “It hasn't improved pop music in the same way PISA hasn't improved education”. He declared that, “We don't need evolution, we need revolution in education”, urging teachers to “change what you do.”
8. Petra’s Planet Edu @PetrasPlanetEDU - This online patform for PCs, laptops and tablets enables primary schools to teach children E-Safety and Digital Literacy through a safe, secure and engaging online virtual world. The site also encourages innovative thinking and problem solving skills. Pupils from the same class can communicate and collaborate even when they are exploring the virtual environment on separate devices. The children can design their own avatar and keep updated with class news via the child-friendly dashboard. See more at petrasplanetedu.com.
9. Muv: Bird @Muvinteractive - As you would imagine interactive screens are everywhere at BETT. Bird offers something different. This small device attaches to your index finger and communicates directly with your computer to make any surface interactive, whether that is a screen, a table or even thin air. The device senses your gestures to allow you to control the programmes and media on your screen. See more information, including a set of videos showing the capabilities of the device at muvinteractive.com. 10. Rapid Education @Rapid_Edu - There are some stands at BETT which simply tick all the boxes. This stand had the right mix of fun small items to try out and examine, plus larger exciting items like a 3D printer (complete with a 3D printed Darth Vader), maker electronics for students to hack their circuit boards and robots to construct and code. See more at rapidonline.com/education. 11. TTS Group @TTS_Group – TTS continue to develop their product range, building on the popularity of the Bee-Bot range, which is visible in many primary schools across the country. 12. TeachMeet BETT - The yearly sharing of teaching ideas and resources at TM BETT is always a highlight of the BETT Show and this year certainly didn’t disappoint. From live ‘real-world’ coding from @catherinelliott, international collaboration from @digitalmaverick and partners, a flurry of teaching ideas from @ASTSupportAAli, to well-being ideas separately from @iTeachRE and @abbiemann1982, there truly was something for everyone. You can browse the archived TM BETT 2015 site at bit.ly/uked15feb20.
18 UKED Magazine
Book Shelf
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Leadership Dialogues: Conversations and activities for leadership teams
How to Teach Literacy - Commas, colons, connectives and conjunctions
View on Amazon at
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www.bit.ly/leaderdialogues
www.bit.ly/teachliteracy
Creating a school culture that is built upon professional and positive dialogues takes time, trust and respect among all who work within. But sometimes it can be difficult to focus on these discussions as schools are notably hectic environments with the pressures of the workload creating barriers to such sustained and positive deliberations. Sometimes, staff meetings can be controlled by the priorities of a certain individuals who are more concerned about their own distinct agendas, rather than focusing on the bigger picture and reality.
The English Language is a complex beast. There are so many rules, conventions and expectations that it is easy for the best of us to unwittingly make an error with grammar, spellings or punctuation! Although many teachers specialise in a particular curriculum area, modelling literacy behaviours to students remains an essential element of the role – so ensuring a sound knowledge in some of the basic language rules is critical for all teachers, "Literacy is a platform for democratisation".
In their new book – Leadership Dialogues: Conversations and Activities for Leadership Teams - John West-Burnham and Dave Harris (@bravehead) propose changing the dialogues that take place in school with a collection of questions and activities which teams can collaboratively explore to examine the mechanics and structures within. The book is not meant to be read sequentially, however the topics within cover: teaching and learning; effective leadership; innovation and change; accountability; thinking strategically; managing resources; collaboration; leading people; organisational change and personal change, and; engaging with students, parents and community. Accompanied by a comprehensive CD-Rom, the book sets the scene of dialogues with critical questions, (such as – How far would you characterise your school as being committed to developing a culture of creativity?) plus further notes, quotes and discussion points to support a positive dialogue between leaders at all levels within the school. The book is a fantastic starting point to reflect on how your school operates, being applicable to primary and secondary school who are looking to create a framework of self-improvement, dialogue and to create a positive learning environment for everyone who attends. Available in Paperback, Leadership Dialogues: Conversations and activities for leadership teams, by John West-Burnham and Dave Harris has an RRP of £24.99* available from Amazon.
There are many barriers for teachers to overcome, but some of these obstacles need to be overcome by the individual. There are other barriers, and these are noted by Phil Beadle in his ‘How to Teach Literacy’ book, which attempts an examination of such barriers whilst offering solutions to help overcome. For example, Beadle explores: Issues around how oracy is not taken seriously; a lack of extended writing opportunities; marking and feedback; not enough poetry, or; a lack of understanding of why students can be reluctant writers, “with literacy you can articulate your anger”. Let’s be clear here. This is not a self-help grammar aide to help teachers. Neither is it a punctuation revision guide which teachers should dip into during each lesson to ensure they have got the possessive apostrophe in the correct place. This book is about pedagogy. This book is about using practical ideas for helping students to improve their writing and oral skills in every lesson they attend, written in a readable and amusing style that will inspire confidence. At the end of the day, there is no logic in English spellings - there is little logic in many things in life – but it is logical that teachers scaffold correct language conventions with pupils. As Phil reminds in the introduction, “It’s your job”. Published by Independent Thinking Press, How to Teach Literacy by Phil Beadle is priced at £12.99* and available from the Amazon Link.
*Correct at the time of publishing ukedchat.com/magazine 19
It’s Time for the Professional Body
Teachers Deserve
By David Weston
We are more motivated in work when we have professional autonomy and recognition. And yet, in too many schools, the only way teachers are recognised is by taking on more managerial responsibility. Not only that, the majority of our professional life is spent in isolation: planning lessons alone, teaching lessons away from other adults, and marking books by ourselves. For some teachers, the only time another professional enters the classroom with them is to judge them against a series of narrow accountability criteria.
recent Department for Education consultation paper where Ministers are exploring how they might support the start-up of such a member-led body while ensuring its independence from them.
When I visit schools I often find that there is a great level of frustration, particularly among classroom teachers and middle leaders, about the lack of opportunities for growth, development and challenge. Many staff feel that where such opportunities do exist, they are unevenly spread and they often feel stuck, not knowing where to go next.
Nothing is set in stone and the idea simply cannot take flight without the support of thousands of teachers across the country. Find out more about the history and future plans for a new College of Teaching at ClaimYourCollege.org or #claimyourcollege hashtag on Twitter and have your say on what it should do and look like.
An idea that has been mooted since 2012, the creation of a professional College of Teaching for (teachers in England), is an exciting opportunity to do something about this, as well as raising the status of the profession more generally. In consultations so far, the consensus that has emerged is for a voluntary body with no compulsion to join (unlike the old GTC in England) to exist that will focus on professional and career development as well as establishing a repository of professional knowledge for the most effective approaches in the classroom. Popular ideas include giving teachers access to career accreditations (e.g. Chartered status) and an entitlement to support from peers, a flexible and life-long portfolio of professional learning and access to research and knowledge through a database and regular online publications. The idea is being spearheaded by the Claim Your College (ClaimYourCollege.org) coalition of teachers and organisations, which will be responding to the
20 UKED Magazine
The next steps are a number of public meetings in January followed by a public response to the consultation. This would be followed by an open appointment of practising teaching professionals to a project board (and eventually trusteeship) to oversee the transfer of a Royal Charter to the new body.
David Weston @informed_edu is a former teacher and the Chief Executive of the Teacher Development Trust, the national charity for effective professional development in schools and colleges. Find out more about the Trust’s work at TDTrust.org
Why we need a By James Abela
The difficulty for teachers is that we have never had a College of Teaching and every other body has either been to scrutinise teachers, such as OFSTED, or primarily to represent our personal well-being. We have never had an organisation to look after our professional well-being! I am a second career teacher and before entering teaching I was a Royal Chartered Marketer. The Chartered Institute of Marketing is the professional body that provides “Knowledge, support, network and growth.� I used to run the Cambridge branch meetings and we would have Teachmeet style events where we would get in presenters and network with each other. The institute would provide well written summaries of the research and provide a menu of professional development. It was a one-stop-shop to keep yourself up to date, to look into the future and to find useful training.
College of Teaching
lobbying government. They used evidence to show the integrity of the profession and the hard work that their members were doing and to generally lift the status of our work. I am a little surprised that the government is willing to give us the seed money for the organisation, but it is just before an election and they want to show they have done something positive for education. For them it is political expediency, but for us it is an opportunity we should grab with both hands, say thank you very much and use our imaginations to start something truly great.
My Chartered certificate is signed by her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, something I am very proud of, but it also shows the importance of the marketing profession. How much more important is it for teachers who train every other profession to have the recognition it deserves? This is why we so badly need a professional voice that is respected to represent our interests and in However, the real benefit of the organisation doing so further benefit the education of all. was that we had somebody who would speak James Abela @ESLweb is 21st Century Teacher up for our professional integrity! Some would of year 2014, but before becoming a teacher in argue that is a challenging job in the world 2004, James was responsible for e-marketing at of sales, but they were remarkably ARM Plc and a member of the Cambridge branch effective at putting our view across of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He is to the public and very enthusiastic that we gain the recognition we deserve for the amazing teaching that we do.
Image credit: flickr.com/photos/geezaweezer/16120054576 by Geraint Rowland used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.
ukedchat.com/magazine 21
Numeracy Literacy and….
Oracy By Holly Page The UK needs to provide explicit teaching of speaking skills in schools to raise the profile of “oracy” to the same level as numeracy and literacy. “If we are to break down the barriers that stop many young people succeeding, then we need an education system that teaches our children to be articulate and confident” At December’s SSAT conference, Harvard educator Eric Mazur vocalised one of the greatest flaws in our current assessment driven education model; that we are preparing our students to pass tests only for them to “fail at life”. Outside of education, in what other context do students find themselves sat alone in a large hall, separated by equal spaces from those around them, prohibited from communicating with others or voicing their ideas?
“Good language and communication skills are absolutely fundamental to personal and societal wellbeing.” (Nuffield Foundation)
Education Schools have perhaps afforded less importance to speaking skills because they are not deemed to directly contribute to a student’s attainment of the all-important A*-C grades. However, good communication skills have benefits across all subject areas, with students able to use their oracy skills to meaningfully peer critique, debate and present their work to others. Well-being Not only do good language and communication skills have universal value for employment and act as a mechanism for improving metacognition, oracy skills are the vital components in forming friendship networks and negotiating social experiences.
“There is an urgent need to support communication development through adolescence. Otherwise we risk consigning a huge proportion of Britain’s young people to a life of missed opportunity and unfulfilled promise.” Virginia Beardshaw, (I CAN)
“Classroom talk is not merely a conduit for the sharing of information, or a means for controlling the exuberance of youth; it is the most important educational tool for guiding the development of understanding and for jointly constructing knowledge.” Neil Mercer (Cambridge University)
Skills gap However, despite the evident importance of communication skills, research conducted by the charity ICAN has found that many young people lack the language and communication skills needed for adulthood.
We need to start equipping students with the skills necessary for success outside of the educational sphere, speaking skills being arguably amongst the most important across multiple contexts:
Speaking in Schools Unfortunately for many students, home does not always provide a supportive environment for promoting talk and therefore schools are the medium through which this socioeconomic divide should be addressed.
Employment Communication, interpersonal skills and teamwork are consistently ranked in the top five skills most valued by employers. 22 UKED Magazine
There is more to this skills gap than meets the eye. It is a profound socioeconomic problem, with an overwhelming 50% of young people from areas of disadvantage suffering from language delay. This has “implications for the potential long-term outcomes for these children and their ability to exploit the curriculum and to flourish as individuals”.
After all, young people spend the majority of their waking hours at school, and it is therefore important that schools act as facilitators for talk, with the positive influence of staff
“If young people are silent it doesn’t mean they don’t have anything to say…It can be that no one has ever asked for their opinions before.” Janine Ryan
In response to the consistent domination of independent schools in national public speaking competitions, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan recently stated that “it simply cannot be the case that the only young people able to stand up and argue their corner are the 7% of pupils educated in private school”. Private schools shouldn’t lower their standards. Conversely, to bridge the socioeconomic divide, measures should be put in place to provide structured support enabling state schools to teach a broad spectrum of speaking skills to all students. Curriculum Provision
and peers as well as an engaging curriculum providing an opportunity for students to learn how to express themselves and communicate with others appropriately. However, schools are currently doing very little to promote speaking skills. On average, teachers do 90% of the talking with individual students saying approximately four words per lesson; the idea that if students are talking they are not learning is unfortunately still prevalent. The removal of the speaking and listening element from the English GCSE has further compounded this issue; teachers have increasing pressure to ensure achievement in written exams and there is currently little incentive for schools to prioritise speaking skills. Universal Need Fortunately, there is an increasing awareness of the need for intervention in this area. However, current provision is inadequate and far from universal, tending to focus on targeted interventions for students suffering with Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN). Interventions are most common at primary school level yet many children slip through the net and therefore suffer throughout their secondary school education. All students should benefit from a focus on improving oracy, not just the most vulnerable. Private school domination On the other side of the educational spectrum are independent schools, renowned for embedding oracy skills into the school culture, building their students’ confidence and equipping them with the communication skills necessary for future success.
"Leaving compulsory education without adequate spoken and communication skills is a serious blight on young people's lives and a major handicap when they're looking for work." Katja Hall (CBI)
Organisations such as the English Speaking Union, and initiatives such as Debate Mate are doing excellent work to support an increasing focus on public speaking skills in the state sector. However, if we are to truly address the deficiency of speaking skills they should not merely be an addendum to an existing PSHE curriculum or an optional after school club. Complemented by its implementation across school culture, oracy can be used as a tool to unlock learning across all subjects. Students need discrete oracy lessons, providing them with a supportive environment in which they can learn and hone the skills necessary for successful communication across a variety of contexts.
“Spoken skills have not had enough of a focus within state schools but it is clear this needs to change.” Stephen Twigg
This should be a call to action. It is our responsibility as teachers to ensure that all students leave school with the confidence and communication skills to compete and thrive, not merely survive in the increasingly international world in which we live. The nation needs young people who have the confidence to use their voice, who are eloquent and can communicate their ideas; young people need teachers who are prepared to support them to improve their speaking skills and in order to achieve this, teachers will need oracy to become an educational priority. It is a positive sign that we are starting to see speaking skills creeping up the educational agenda. However, the irony of the matter is that we need politicians to spend less time talking about talk and more time transforming words into actions.
Having qualified as a modern languages teacher and became frustrated with the results driven nature of education, Holly now works at the 21 Trust, working in close partnership with School 21 in Stratford, East London. You can contact her at: holly@21trust.org or you can follow the Trust’s work on Twitter: @21trustedu ukedchat.com/magazine 23
Global Linking
Manchester to Nanjing By Angela Goodman
Four years ago Moorside Primary School was a typically average school in an urban area four miles from Manchester City Centre. Our demographic was in line with National Average in many ways, though our percentage of learners with English as an Additional Language was very low. Our curriculum relied on purchased resources with relatively few real-life experiences. The picture at Moorside has changed dramatically in a short space of time. Between May 2013 and June 2015 students from Moorside Primary School will have visited partner schools in Greece, Poland, Spain, Turkey and China. Our Chinese link began in October 2012 when our Headteacher, Pierre Coiffait, and our Deputy Headteacher, Ian Wilson, attended an International Cooperative in China to promote the speaking of Chinese. Links were forged with Youfu West Street Primary School in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, Eastern China. So far two groups of staff and pupils have visited our partner school, with another group due to travel in March 2015. Months of planning goes into arranging a school trip to China, starting with selecting the children. We have limited our international trips to Year 5 – old enough to cope with the journey and the time away, with another year left at school for us all to benefit on their return. All Year 5 children are welcome to apply. Parents contribute towards the cost of the flights, with the cost of hosting being taken by our partner school in Nanjing. Selecting children is a challenge! Resilience, confidence and independence are key. Children are asked to submit an application form explaining what they feel they will learn from the trip, as well as what the challenges may be. All children are then interviewed by a member of the School Governing Body before the final eight are chosen. In preparation for the trip, all children in Year 5 have weekly Chinese lessons. Many opportunities are also taken to learn about China and our partner school in different subjects throughout the year. Our curriculum has been enhanced in this way, making comparisons more real. Purpose has also been given to many aspects of the pupils writing and computing.
During the trip the staff and students stay in the boarding facilities at Youfu. They attend a maths lesson at the school, as well as traditional paper cutting and calligraphy. Children are also expected to share a presentation about themselves with a class at Youfu. As well as sharing in the life of the school, children are also able to experience local historical and cultural features. The most eye-opening aspect of the trip for me was being able to visit an area of China little used to European visitors. The children went from spearing food with one chopstick at the beginning of the trip to managing a whole meal by the end of the trip! We did not, however, get used to being the centre of attention when walking around the city. Whenever we paused for a group photograph people would crowd around to take their own shot! Working with a foreign currency and trying their hand at bartering was also a new experience for the children. On the pupils’ return, they lead a whole school assembly to which we invite parents. Their maturity and relationships develop over the period of the trip, as well as their outlook on the world around them. The feedback on return has been incredibly positive from both staff and children. Speaking to the parent of a child from our first trip, she felt that the positive impact on her child, Faye, will influence her for many years. In discussion about possible family holidays, Faye now wants to visit places the family have never considered before so that they can explore new cultures. Ewan Goodman, one of the children selected for the March 2015 trip said, “I think the trip will be life-changing! I’m looking forward to finding out about life in China.” The chance to visit the real China, beyond the tourist route, is certainly a once in a lifetime opportunity, and one that the staff and students involved will treasure forever. The benefits to the individuals and the school are huge and wide-ranging – we hope to continue to foster this link for many years to come.
Angela Goodman @goodman_ang is International Coordinator at Moorside Primary School, Droylsden, Manchester. I have been in post for four years. In this time I have developed links with schools in South Africa, Ethiopia, Namibia, Greece, Spain, Poland, Turkey and Argentina and I was part of the team which visited Nanjing in 2014. Our international work has led to us being awarded British Council/HSBC Link2Learn Primary School of the year in 2014. To share our work we are involved in the Global Learning Programme as an Expert Centre. 24 UKED Magazine
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An Update from Our School Farm
In the way that doing exercise to have more energy can seem counter-intuitive, giving dis-engaged or disruptive students a greater role in class can produce wonderful results. It is too easy to place constant fiddlers, chatterers and troublesome pupils at the back of the class in the hope this will change their behaviour. This option may only enforce their negative behaviour: Bring them up to the front. Give them responsibility, no matter how small, and you often see great improvements in behaviour and concentration.
You may remember the article about our school farm in the October issue (bit.ly/uked15feb21). Since then we have attended the National Harvest Service at Birmingham Cathedral, where the students who attended had a chat with HRH The Duchess of Cornwall about the blue eggs we included in our harvest box. A few weeks later, we went to the English Winter Fair at Staffordshire Showground. We exhibited the pigs which were pictured in the article, and the British Pig Association’s Junior Pig Club also organised a sausagemaking competition which one of our teams won, with the unusual recipe of apple, sage and chilli.
How you do this must be considered and balanced. It cannot seem like a reward for bad behaviour, or a punishment. Ask them for help: taking notes for the rest of the class, moving your Powerpoint presentation slides on, ticking off the bullet points you want to cover in a lesson in case you “forget” anything. These simple tasks can greatly improve engagement for distract able students, but bare in mind that they are different to more active tasks like asking a student for help collecting books in or handing worksheets out. These are best suited to someone whose concentration can be improved by having a brief respite from sitting down and a bit of movement. @Mr_Daniels_SFP - MYP Science Teacher, Spain
In Brief
Bring Fiddlers Forward
In 2015 we face some significant challenges as there are no new GCSE or equivalent qualifications approved, as yet, for use after 2016. Most of the exam boards submitted a qualification this time around, but none seem to have met with the approval of the powers that be. Without a qualification attached, it may be difficult for many school farms to continue. On a lighter note, we will soon be re-homing a pygmy goat, and regenerating the school veg patch (the sheep are now on old one) hopefully with an African keyhole garden and a Native American ‘Three Sisters’ bed. @pipkinzoo - Leader of Land Studies, Warwickshire ukedchat.com/magazine 25 ukedchat.com/magazine 31
Teaching in a
British School
in China
By Elizabeth Westwood
If someone had told me five years ago that I would be sitting in a Year 5 classroom in China writing an article on what it is like to teach abroad, I would never have believed them. I hadn’t always dreamed of teaching abroad, and hadn’t really thought about it seriously until a friend of mine from University suggested that we came to China to teach. I am now in my fourth year at The British International School Puxi Shanghai, and it is amazing. This is my second international school and I am hooked! Aside from the amazing travel opportunities afforded to me by being here and getting to live in an incredibly vibrant city, I am truly privileged to teach such incredible children. I am Head of Year 5 and we have five classes in our year group with 109 children in total. In terms of my day to day job, this is one of the biggest differences to the small one-form entry school I worked at in Hertfordshire before I moved abroad. When I sat down to really think about what the single best thing is about my school, I struggled to pick. Of course, I am speaking of what the best thing is after the children! If I was forced to pick, I would have to say our learning environment. We are incredibly fortunate to have two purpose built campuses designed specifically to engage children right from the youngest in pre-Nursery to our oldest in Y13. In our Primary campus, the EYFS area supports all areas of learning and the creativity is just wonderful. Our KS1 area supports a whole range of role-play areas and the displays in KS2 are child-centred and thought-provoking. In primary, we have a brand new cooking room and a purpose build Science lab to support the curriculum. In just a short time, both have been used to make all sorts of weird and wonderful creations and that is just the start. Our Secondary Campus hosts comfortable areas for students in KS3 and KS4 to congregate both inside and outside and our IB Academy has individual study areas solely for our IB students. Having such great facilities means that our students can pursue their interests from sports or languages to music and performing arts. Of course, a school couldn’t function without it’s staff. BISS Puxi has a wonderful team who work tirelessly to engage and educate our students in every way they can. Both local and International staff work alongside each other to ensure that our students have a safe and happy learning environment. All students up to Y9 learn Mandarin (although it is an option up to IB) and we have a dedicated team of Mandarin teachers who bring the language to life. Special events in the Chinese calendar are often marked by our Chinese staff and teachers and Learning Assistants get together to celebrate Chinese New Year. This is a time when Chinese culture really comes into our classrooms through all sorts of different activities. On the last day of term before the New Year holiday, most female staff can be seen sporting Chi Pao, a tradition Chinese dress, while others join in by wearing lucky red.
26 UKED Magazine
A piece about teaching wouldn’t be complete without the thoughts of the students: What do you like most about being in China? “I have learnt more Chinese and the bullet train is really fast and exciting. It made me feel as if someone was pushing me backwards.” “In China I have made lots of new friends from all around the world.” “In China there are lots of beautiful gardens like Sheshan, the place we went for our trip in Year 2.” “I like being in China because it is very interesting to learn about different countries and their cultures. I also like learning about Chinese history.” “What I like about China is the different types of architecture, both ancient and modern.” How is being at school in China different to your school at home? “My school in South Korea was really small. I used to walk across the road from my Grandma’s house. Now I get on the bus and have lots more friends and teachers.” “When I was at school in Holland we didn’t have the Smart boards. I love having these in class because we can move things around when we are in class and learning.” “My school in Holland didn’t have football pitches. People bring in their footballs, we can play matches and practice goal scoring.”
“In the Singapore school I went to we didn’t have a swimming pool so I didn’t get to learn this in PE. I have learnt how to freestyle here. You have to take turns rotating your arms and hands. Also in Singapore I only learnt repeated addition, here I have learnt multiplication and times tables much earlier. BISS Puxi is different to my school in England because in England, my school is a village school so there are only about 90 pupils. What is your favourite thing about BISS Puxi? “I like Maths in school because we do cool experiments and investigations.” “I have learnt how to make my own movies and making step by step animations. I was really fun learning more about computers.” “I love Literacy because I enjoy doing descriptions in my writing. We do these lots in class and learn different types of writing that gives me new vocabulary. The writing and words we learnt for dinosaurs is really different from the Just So Stories. It makes me a better writer.” “We have lots of school trips now at school and we don’t do as many in Poland.” “My favourite thing about BISS Puxi is that I can make new friends from around the world and learning about different places in history.” Elizabeth Westwood is Head of Year 5 at The British International School Shanghai Puxi, part of the Nord Anglia Education family of schools. She has been teaching for 13 years, 8 years in the UK and this is her 5th teaching internationally. She is currently in her 4th year at BISS Puxi, having spent one year in Oman before Shanghai. Follow the school on Twitter at @bisspuxi.
And from the staff: What do you like most about being in China? “You never know what is going to happen next! I moved from rural Norfolk to Shanghai earlier this year. It’s just so diverse and it has a huge ex-pat population. It is totally out of my comfort zone.” “I have never been anywhere where the general population are so positive about the direction of their country, especially coming from England. It is just great.” What is the best thing about BISS Puxi? “The kids. It’s got to be the kids.” “The children. They are so happy and enthusiastic to come to school to learn.” “Being able to teach. We have a new curriculum based on the IPC and it is just amazing.” Why did you come to China? “Nine years ago I asked my 11-year old daughter which place she would most like to go and she said China. There was a big dust storm in Beijing when I had to choose where to work, so here we are in Shanghai.” “I came abroad to have the freedom to teach. This isn’t my first post in China nor is it my first international job. China gave me the best offer.” “I came to China because it is a great jumping off point for other countries and it’s just so diverse.” “China is awe-inspiring and Shanghai is an amazing, vibrant city. The skyline is forever changing and life never stops. There are so many ‘China moments’ every day and they just make you stop and think ‘I live here!’” Image credit: All images by Martin Burrett ukedchat.com/magazine 27
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Key Poetic Devices and Terms
alliteration Where words close together or next to each other begin with the same phoneme (sound). chorus A short section of poetry that is repeated occasionally throughout the poem. free verse Poetry that has no rhyme or consistent pattern. line Poems are made up of lines that do not form paragraphs like those used in normal writing. metaphor Writing about something as if it were something else. The words ‘is’ and ‘are’ are used. onomatopoeia The use of words that sound like their meaning. patterns When the poem takes the shape of the subject it is written about.